About Us Front row (left to right): Marshal Sam Mason, SD - Terry Taylor, SW - Corey Peoples, WM - Greg Whitted, Sr., JW - Shawn T. Parker, JD - Rendell Briggs, Tiler/ADDGM Joe Diggs Sr 2nd Row (left to right): Assistant District Deputy Grandmaster - Darrin L. Hill, Bro. Tucker, PM James Evans, PM Jason Holleman, Bro. Hughes, Chaplain/PM Claiborne, Secretary/PM - James Crocker ,PM Gerald Hite 3rd Row (left to right): Bro. Kennis Robertson, Treasurer/PM - Antonio Pride, Bro. Michael Spencer, Bro. Craig Stith, PM Gregory Goode, PM Robert Maxon, SS Rashad Pitt MWPHGL-VA/Cabinet Members, and Brethren of #43 Front row (left to right): Past Right Worshipful Grand Lecturer-Eastern District: Donald Wilson, Right Worshipful Grand Lecturer-Eastern District: George T. Cutler, Assitant District Deputy Grand Master: Joe Diggs, Right Worshipful Senior Grand Warden: Shelton Riddick, Bro. Terry Taylor, Most Worshipful Past Grand Master:Larry D. Christian, Worthy Grand Tiler: Charlie Alexander, Assistant District Deputy Grand Master: Larry D. Moody, Bro. Briggs. 2nd Row: Assistant District Deputy Grandmaster: Darrin L. Hill, Bro. Stanley Custis, Bro. Shawn T. Parker, PM Warren Newell, PM Gregory L. Goode, Bro. Moseley, PM Marquis Campbell, Bro. Corey Peoples, PM Jamie Evans, PM Sam Mason, Not Pictured: Worthy Grand Pursuivant Edward Lattimore. 3rd Row: PM Antonio Pride, PM Maxon, PM Claiborne, Bro. Rashaad Pitt. What Is Freemasonry? Freemasonry is the oldest Fraternal organization in existence. Written records about our Fraternal Order date back as early as 1390. Freemasonry is a charitable organization. Masonic organizations in North America collectively contribute million of dollars every day to charities throughout the country. A band of Brothers linked together by an indissoluble chain of sincere friendship and affection, where the high, the low, the richest and poorest of men can meet together with one common purpose, the perpetuation of each other's friendship and each other's love.....forged through the binding effect of shared experiences and in the important lessons taught in the Craft degrees. A Fraternity of morality, founded on the allegorical application of the tools and implements of architecture "most expressive" to the construction of our personalities - buildings of living stone, in the service of God and mankind. Not a religion nor offering no promise of salvation, but a Fraternity seeking to inculcate in its membership love for God and our fellowman, by the practice of the principle tenants of the institution: brotherhood, relief, and truth. The World's oldest fraternity. Because we steadfastly adhere to these principles, we have lasted through the ages, generation after generation and through the atrition of the waves and sands of life; through good report and bad, Freemasonry has continued to shed it's beneficent influence wider over the world. History of Prince Hall Prince Hall (c.1735 – December 4, 1807) is considered the founder of "Black Freemasonry" in the United States, known today as Prince Hall Freemasonry. Prince Hall's birthdate and birthplace are subject to conjecture. He may have been born either in Massachusetts or in Barbados, and his year of birth is generally recorded as either 1735 or 1738. Documents in Massachusetts showing that slaveowner William Hall freed a man named Prince Hall on April 9, 1765 cannot be conclusively linked to any one individual as there exists record of no fewer than 21 males named Prince Hall, and several other men named Prince Hall were living in Boston at that time. It is also unknown whether he was free-born or a freedman. Prince Hall was a property owner and a registered voter in Boston. He worked as an abolitionist and civil rights activist, fought for laws to protect free blacks in Massachusetts from kidnapping by slave traders, campaigned for schools for black children, and operated a school in his own home. On March 6, 1775, Prince Hall and fourteen other free black men were initiated, passed and raised in Military Lodge No. 441, an integrated Lodge attached to the British Army and then stationed in Boston. When the British Army left Boston in 1776, the black Masons were granted a dispensation for limited operations as African Lodge No. 1. They were entitled to meet as a Lodge, to take part in the Masonic procession on St. John's Day, and to bury their dead with Masonic rites, but not to confer degrees or perform other Masonic functions. Excluded by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, they were granted a charter by the Premier Grand Lodge of England in 1784 as African Lodge No. 459 (but, due to communications problems, did not receive the actual charter until 1787). Shortly after that, black Masons elsewhere in the United States began contacting Prince Hall with requests to establish affiliated Lodges in their own cities. Consistent with European Masonic practice at that time, African Lodge granted their requests and served as Mother Lodge to new black Lodges in Philadelphia, Providence and New York. In 1791, black Freemasons met in Boston and formed the African Grand Lodge of North America. Prince Hall was unanimously elected its Grand Master and served until his death in 1807. (The claim that he was appointed Provincial Grand Master for North America in 1791 appears to have been fabricated.) The African Grand Lodge was later renamed the Prince Hall Grand Lodge in his honor. In 1827 the African Grand Lodge declared its independence from the United Grand Lodge of England, as the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts had done 45 years earlier. It also stated its independence from all of the white Grand Lodges in the United States. Today, predominantly black Prince Hall Grand Lodges exist in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Liberia, governing Prince Hall Lodges throughout the world. After nearly two centuries of controversy, the Grand Lodge of England was asked to decide the matter of Prince Hall Masonic legitimacy. Carefully studying the records, the Grand Lodge of England concluded that the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was indeed entitled to Masonic recognition, and this against the tradition that, per state, only one recognised Masonic body should exist. As a result, most (though not all) "mainstream" (i.e. predominantly white) Grand Lodges in the United States and elsewhere have extended full fraternal recognition to their Prince Hall counterparts. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Prince Hall on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. Notable Prince Hall Masons Garrett Morgarn (Inventor), Thurgood Marshall (Justice,U.S. Supreme Court), Alex Haley (Author), Booker T. Washington (Educator/Founder Tuskegee Institute), Charles B. Rangel (U.S. Congressman New York), William "Count" Basie (Orchestra leader/composer), Nathaniel "Nat King" Cole (American Pianist and Singer), W.E.B. DuBois (Educator/author/historian), Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (Orchestra Leader/Composer), Medger Wiley Evers (Civil Rights Leader), James Herbert "Eubie" Blake (Composer/Pianist), Andrew Young (Former Mayor of Atlanta), Thomas Bradley (Former Mayor of Los Angeles), Sugar Ray Robinson (Boxing Champion), John H. Johnson (Publisher EBONY/Jet Magazines), Matthew Henson (Explorer), Daniel "Chappie" James (General U.S. Air Force), (James Forten, Abolitionist/Manufacturer), Benjamin L. Hooks (Former Executive Director NAACP), Benjamin Mays (Educator/Former President Atlanta University), Scottie Pippen (#33, Chicago Bulls / Forward), Richard Pryor (Comedian). History of the MWPHGL of Virginia The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Virginia, Free and Accepted Mason, has a glorious history. It traces its orgin to African Lodge (now the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts) in honor and memory of Prince Hall. The first Lodge in Virginia was Universal #1 in Alexandria, VA. and was organized February 5, 1845. Rising Sun Lodge in Norfolk was the second lodge in and designated as Rising Sun #2 and received its charter in 1865, then Morning Star #3 and Eastern Light #4 soon followed. These lodges were working under the authority of the National Grand Lodge which was composed of State Grand Lodges. The was a strong desire for Virginia to have a Grand Lodge and the work to accomplish this started with a preliminary meeting being held on October 29, 1865, and the next several meetings were held December 28, 1865 and February 17, 1866, which resulted in the desire to becoming a reality. Rev J. B. Trusty, a minister in the C.M.E Church was pastoring Union Street Church in Petersburg, VA. He held a membership in a lodge in Philadelphia, PA. Through his work and efforts he organized a class of 72 men for the purpose of being made Masons. He received applications and sent them to his lodge in Philadelphia. After due process, a delegation come to Petersburg and on August 16, 1866, they entered, passed, and raised these gentlemen into the fraternity. After being raised these men divided themselves into three lodges of 24 members each in which the selected the lodge names of J. B. Trusty, Virginia, and Abram. These three lodges were chartered by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. On Ocotober 14, 1867 this three lodges organized the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons afterwhich Virginia has two grand lodges operating in the state. As the years passed and as membership grew in the number of lodges in each grand lodge, the two grand bodies had a strong desire to merger. The ground work and plans for the merger were made at a conference of the two grand lodges at St. Luke's Hall on Franklin Street Richmond, VA on June 1874. Another meeting was arranged for the two grand lodges in Petersburg on December 15, 1875 and after an all night session at Harrison Street Baptist (now First Baptist Church of Petersburg) the National Grand Lodge with seventeen subordinate lodges and the Ancient Grand Lodge with eighteen subordinate lodge became the Most Worshipful United Grand Lodge. Subsequently, the Most Worshipful United Grand Lodge adopted the name Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Virginia (Prince Hall Affiliation). It operated under the this name as an unincorporated body until September 17, 1958. On June 16, 1959, a charter or incoporation was issued by the State Corporation of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the name and title of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Virginia, Free and Accepted Masons and the Grand Lodge of Virginia became of corporate entity. The history in Virginia shows that Prince Hall and his associates had an honorable and legal organization, which with pride, could trace its ancestry back to the Grand Lodge of England. Moreover, the two original Grand Lodges of the State of Virginia were the fruits of the organization planted by Prince Hall himself in Pennsylvania and of Pennsylvania into Maryland and Virginia. Contact Us  |  Site Map